Second Chances
by the.clairvoyance
Summary: Mac and Stella get a second chance at love. Post Second Chances.


**Second Chances**

**Disclaimer:** Do you think that if I owned the show I would have cut the scene off there? That ending was fierce! =O

**Pairing:** Mac/Stella, Smacked.

**Genre:** Romance/Friendship/Humour.

**Rating:** K+

**Spoilers:** Season 6, episode 11. Second Chances.

**Summary:** Mac and Stella get a second chance at love. Post Second Chances.

**A/N:** Okay, so that summary sucks but whatever xD. Alrighty then, back on track! So after I watched the CSI: NY "Second Chances" promo I began writing this and then last night it was the episode and it was _fan—freaking—tabulous_ :D. Now I guess this is the rest of the final scene of the episode :D.

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It was all Stella could do to not light up like a child on Christmas morning, the adage being quite suiting considering her current surroundings and company. It was the day before Christmas Eve and the team had managed to wrap up their most recent case yet and in the process bond even closer together, something that never ceased to surprise or disappoint the first grade detective, and now were standing inside a children's hospital dressed up in all sorts of festive costumes and attire. Her colleagues dressed as Santa's elves and of course there was the man of the hour, Santa himself, or rather a very cheerful man with another gig in twenty minutes, "_ho ho ho-ing_" to the young children.

There was now a blanket of snow spread across the city of New York and the most beautiful twinkling Christmas lights to illuminate it. This, along with the happiness and love of the season, had Stella feeling as if the world was a truly wonderful place despite all of the filth she saw day in and out. Having grown up in an orphanage most of her life—when she wasn't being shuttled between foster families—Stella understood how very important Christmas was to a child, especially when they were spending it with someone who really cared about family and friends and neighbors, and especially ones who cared about the children who didn't seem to receive enough love and care year round. Thankfully the Greek woman was distracted from her thoughts when she felt something brush against her arm, turning to check on it she realized it was the man standing next to her, smiling just as wide as she.

"I can't believe they actually did it. I mean I could understand Hawkes and maybe Danny, but Don and Lindsay are pretty into it." Mac spoke amusedly and for some reason Stella found that utterly hilarious and her smile became broader.

"You know this is the stuff Christmas specials are made of?" The elated woman replied, her curls bouncing around her shoulders, almost as joyous as the rest of her.

Mac laughed, that odd laugh that was a mixture of both kindness and good humor as well as knowledge and something simply impossible to describe. Stella felt her breath escape her as her closest friend enfolded his arm around her shoulder and brought her closer to him, closer than he had initiated in the longest time, especially in such a public setting. Heart beating quicker than Stella thought it ought to, she leaned into him only slightly as if she were afraid she would scare him away if she pressed any harder. Her arm came up to wrap around him as well when she felt it, the softest skim of lips against her skin, his lips to be exact, gliding from her cheekbone up to her temple where the most gorgeous butterfly kiss was placed.

"Merry Christmas, Stella Bonasera." He whispered, his voice rumbling softly in her ear—the way Stella loved, not that she would ever admit to it—and she could not help but wonder if this was an actual Christmas miracle.

Shock wearing thin the CSI turned in her friend and partner's embrace and slid her other arm around him as well, the left around his lower back and the right slipped under his armpit so her hand could rest between his shoulder blades. They held the stance for a moment before they realized that they couldn't very well spend the rest of their lives staring in one another's eyes—

although they would likely enjoy it—and it was Stella who made the first, or was it second?, move by inching her lips just a breath away from his own.

There was no hesitation; for they surely would not be able to handle the sure sting of rejection that would follow if they had, and despite their shared concern and fear they both moved forward, one following the other, and before they knew it they were losing themselves in one another.

It felt like an earthquake to Mac, the world shaking to pieces all around him, the sky falling, the ground breaking apart beneath his feet; he couldn't breathe and didn't want to, Stella was as good as oxygen, if not preferable. For Stella, being painfully cliché, she felt her lips and spine and fingertips tingle as Mac opened his mouth over hers.

_Oh God._ Stella's mind was floored. _Was this what Heaven felt like? _

They broke apart about fifteen seconds after they realized what they were doing in front of their colleagues, in front of hospital staff, and in front a mass of children who only saw romance from G rated movies. It was all those reasons that they told themselves for why they broke apart, because admitting that the other had made them so breathless was just to humiliating to own up to.

Mistletoe. Mac had never kissed a girl under the mistletoe before, not that this time around there had been a spring of some kind of plant dangling above his and Stella's heads, a curse and blessing disguised as the other. No, there had only been the thrill of the season and magnificence surrounding them and the fact that it had been too long and too much and in that moment they had broken down their defenses and did something reckless and stupid and amazing. A kiss—a single kiss!—may not seem like much in the grand scheme of things or of life even, but from what Mac understood of it Stella now had to see just how much she meant to him and how much he hoped he meant to her.

"Mac?" A voice gasped beside him and it took a minute for Mac to comprehend that he was indeed still holding Stella Bonasera; Greek goddess, best friend, first grade CSI, and woman of his dreams in his arms and once he realized this he couldn't help but grin.

"Yes, Stell?" He replied because stupid him couldn't think of anything with more syllables.

"Merry Christmas to you too." She told him shortly and before he could tell her he could just hear the smile in her pleased tone of voice he felt an arm coil around his neck and a hand rest over his heart, two lips bombarding his mouth in a strangely chaste way for a woman tickling his tongue. He kissed back, deciding that if a woman who has stood by you in every way imaginable, could handle the sight of death and loss, human scum and human suffering every day and could still wear a smile so heart-stopping, _and_ was beautiful enough to have a date every night of the week wanted to kiss you until you were blue in the face you do not disapprove.

He sighed into her lips and let go of the world around them, of the snowflakes falling over the city and night time taking its toll and children laughing with complete mirth and even the embarrassing cat-calls of their co-workers as Stella brought him more joy than every Christmas morning of his entire childhood. In a way he almost felt sorry for children now, the way they got all excited for Santa and presents, time off from school and chowing down on huge meals. Those were all fine and good but the sheer bliss of being entwined in the person you love most in the world, the sound of young children giggling and thanking Santa, the vision of a Winter Wonderland on your very own front porch. You don't appreciate all that when you're four or five or fifteen, and you don't have to when you have all that childhood innocence but when you've seen as much as Mac and Stella have seen, when you have or have almost lost a close family member or friend, when you have been so lonely and so in love for so long you learn that gifts and Christmas cookies and ornaments mean very little in the bigger picture.

Mac smiled as a thought registered to him; he and Stella can have that from now on or maybe they've always had? Oh well, it doesn't really matter anyway, all he could think about now was how red his face was and how pink his lips were and how long it would take his team to let this go. A muffled laughter flooded over him, consuming his attention completely. Stella. She was laughing, smiling, and blushing. Her lips were just as pink as what Mac assumed his were and they were smiling as they kissed chastely, quickly, and departed somewhat, however never straying too far away but putting enough of a distance between them to resist the incredible urge to sneak off to an abandoned janitor's closet or the back seat of one of the two cars they drove over in.

"Wouldja ya look at that? Guess ya don't need mistletoe for a little Christmas kissin'?" Don, adorned in an utterly cliche elf costume, commented with a teasing smile.

"Leave it alone, Don." The now more serious, although still blushing, CSI replied with a smile tweaking the corner of his lip, one no one could miss.

"Aw, yer jus' sore coz' ya got caught mackin' on Stella while the rest of Santa's helpers are handing gifts and goodies to the munchkins." An annoying amused Danny retorted only to become increasingly annoying by laughing at the aforementioned statement.

"Mac was _macking_ on Stella. Get it?" Everyone did but chose the wiser, not to mention safer, route and did not reply. "Oh c'mon, that was a good one!"

Stella rolled her pretty green eyes, her fingers itching to touch Mac's only a brush away, and gave him a faux sympathetic smile. "Ah, Danny, it was a very clever and very awful pun, don't you go feeling all under-appreciated on us now. Tis' the season to be jolly." She ended mock cheerfully and the rest of the group cracked similar smiles at the lame reference.

"Thank ya, Stell." Danny nodded curtly. "I can see why Mac would wanna make the most of the _Christmas season_ with you." He added with a none too subtle wink in the two first grade detectives' direction.

A warm laughter spread through the small group of friends only to be interupted by the comically dressed Hawkes clapping his hand over Danny's shoulder, speaking to his fellow CSI; "you keep this up the least of your concerns will be quitting saying _boom_ cold turkey."

More laughter erupted and instinctively Danny threw his head back in amusement, _"Boom,"_ falling off of his lips.

Lindsay, ever the lady, slapped the back of her hands into his stomach and tossed him a stern look, the amusement concealed behind her eyes.

"I think what my _darling_ husband," the Montanian detective began. "Is trying to get across, Mac and Stella, is that its about damn time."

Appropriately, Mac and Stella shared a flushed expression, not at all attributed to the chilly weather. Perhaps they wouldn't be as much of a lost cause as they had assumed they would make in a romantic relationship and that was enough to elicite wide grins from both partners.

"Merry Christmas, you guys. Now lets get outta here." Stella smiled as she lead her friends and colleagues towards the front of the building.

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**A/N:** Cyber fudge for all those who agree this _should_ have been how the episode ended ;). And have a very joyous whatever it is you celebrate :D 333.


End file.
